Sword
by M. Castor
Summary: We find Risa in a predicament-Knuckles is all up in her grill, she learns the fate of her home, and is attacked by Black Fungus. There's only one thing that can save her...a sword. Read after PRISON. Connected to OPENING THE WHITE EYES
1. Chapter 1

**Last repeated scene, I promise. **

I sit at the foot of the altar's steps, waiting for something-anything to take me out of this boredom. Autumn zephyrs reach the island, brushing up against my clothes and blowing the leaves to my feet. How long can one stay here without losing their mind? I can take one more nap for today and then I need something to do to keep me alive.

When I open my eyes, the sunset's lights stretch across the desolate sky. Being a guardian seems to be a boring occupation for me, so clearly I am not fitted for this position. Maybe I should leave the island for a while and see what is out there. I stand up, ascend the steep altar steps and come face to face with Knuckles, slouching on top of the Master Emerald.

"I have a question."

"What?" responds Knuckles gruffly.

"Is there more to this island than _this island_?"

"What're you talking about?"

I have come to realize he is very dense. "This island cannot be all that is here in this world, am I right or wrong?"

"Right…" he answers skeptically. "You're thinking of leaving the island, aren't you?"

"I want to-"

He stops paying attention to me and focuses on something behind me. I look at whatever he is looking at and spot a white envelope on the ground. We exchanged stolid glances, walk down the steps, then I open the envelope, and read it.

_To whom it may concern,_

_I know that you have traveled far and wide to get here. Meet me by the lawyer's attorney office on Coffee Boulevard. You'll see it when you arrive, tonight at 8. I will do my best to explain your current situation and give you the option of employment for supporting yourselves while you are here. I look forward to meeting you._

"Interesting," I mumble to myself, then look at a perplexed Knuckles. "I do have to leave the island for a small amount of time." Not as long as I would like though.

"What for?" he crosses his arms defensively as if keeping me here is the most essential thing in the world.

"I need to see someone," I briefly explain while putting the letter in my pocket. "Someone who will explain my current predicament. So are you going to aid me in getting off and getting back on?"

Knuckles ponders about the idea of me leaving the island, which I assume would bring him solace since he enjoys his solitude. Without giving me an answer, he heads off to the nearby lake with a determined countenance. Is it a yes or no?

He stands in front of the narrowest, medium-size boulder, lifts it over his head with ease, and walks over to me. I take a few steps back as he drops it by the island's edge and says, "Get on."

As I climb on top of the boulder, I reply, "I hope you do not mean to permanently expel me from the island. How will I get back?"

"Beats me."

When I am seated at the top, he cranks his arm back and sends a powerful punch that sends me off that forever-boring island.

'

I burst into the decrepit building and stop myself by slamming my hands on the desk.

"I am sorry for my tardiness," I bow my head slightly to the enigmatical man.

"Don't worry about it," his raised hand tells me to sit down. "I guess the others won't be joining us. I'll begin now-last night, you two traveled from other worlds and landed here. I know this because you two and another fell from the sky like shooting stars, which means that your own homes have disappeared-"

"Woah, woah, woah, what do you mean 'disappeared'?" a girl with some Oriental decent says aloud.

"I had a similar fate," I add. "I was running with a friend of mine away from a red sphere, surrounded by black creatures with yellow eyes and then I ended up on An-here."

The way Knuckles kept the origin of the floating island a secret from me, I should do the same, now that I am suddenly a guardian, which I still do not understand.

"The red sphere you both describe is like a vacuum that absorbed everything in your worlds."

"You expect me to believe this?"

"I know that this is hard for you two to take in, but do you have another theory of why you're not in your homes?"

"Maybe-! What if-"

"There is no use concocting an unreliable theory of why this occurred," I interrupt. "So far, it sounds very believable."

"Did either of you see a black door in your worlds?"

A door of blackness? Do I recall seeing anything like that jut out in the Village of the Willow?

"The black door means that your world has been 'marked' by the Heartless. They are monsters of darkness that feed off the hearts of every living thing in different worlds and the reason why you're both here. See, when the black door is opened, the Heartless have a way of entering. Only someone with vile Darkness can open the door," he further explains.

My heart plunges; how could all of this have happened? Me, the strongest and most acumen warrior of my village, could not see this danger coming? Normally, I would get a feeling, a mere inkling of something evil to come, but this time, I was too late. Not only is pain tugging at my sides, but concern for Clancy. Heartless are…

"Black monsters with yellow eyes…" I say aloud quietly as I remember the black creatures that surrounded us. At that moment, in a long time I felt helpless. I could not save Clancy or myself from this atrocity that has befallen my home. I shake my head and bring my eyes to the man's sunglasses.

"Rest assured, for at the moment, they cannot enter this world. Now, to business-you girls can do certain tasks that require some physical power and mental powers for the sake of others. When you traveled, you were tagged with the ability to locate hidden gateways to other worlds. Therefore, you can move about different worlds, but not without feeling some side effects like nausea, dizziness, and etcetera. By doing these tasks, you can get paid money to do whatever you want."

"How do you know all this?" the girl I met earlier says pungently.

"You said it requires some physical strength?" It reminds me of home for some reason, doing the norm with Clancy.

"I know all this because we have shared the same experiences. Yes, for most of these tasks, you'll need to know how to defend for yourselves. Otherwise, you will die out there. Anymore questions ladies?"

"You're positive there's no way of getting back home?"

"At the moment, no. If you have more questions, come back here and I'll give your tasks. Now before you girls leave, you should introduce yourselves," the man says comfortably as he gets ready to leave. After the other two girls exchange introductions, the girl who came later than me, I assume, asks leniently, "Your name?"

"Risa Willow-Greenhorn."


	2. Chapter 2

Knuckles is astonished to see me back on the island "in one piece." Nonchalantly, I let go of the rope I tied to the boulder and roll it to the side with my leg.

"A-a human can't do that," he stammers, completely amazed at every movement I make. "What are you?"

I turn away from him and stare off the sleep-inducing sea. "I am just a girl."

"There's no way!" he immediately denies. "It would be impossible for you get back here without help from someone like me."

Perhaps another day I would argue with him, but I would rather stay taciturn for the next day.

"You said as you blasted me off earlier, 'Just try to make it back here in one piece!' remember?"

"Well, yeah-"

He stops himself short as rain precipitates on everything.

"Damn! Where did this rain come from? Jeez, it better not be like this all day tomorrow," he repines as he retreats to the altar where the green jewel gleams. I refuse to sit down or stay dry under the roof-I deserve the cold rain beating against my back and the brisk breeze sending shivers down my spine. Clancy might be _dead_ because I could not save him in time and because I let the Heartless rampage through my world and devour it. I can only wish for his forgiveness.

The alarm in Knuckles's voice makes me wake up dripping wet the next morning.

"What is the matter?" I ask as I ascend the altar's steps, wringing out water from my sleeves.

"What's going on? Why is it acting like this?"

The Master Emerald's normal green light is not covering the steps like it was last night, instead it seems to be flickering. I get to the top and see the damage for myself. The giant Emerald's luster is abating to a greyish color, but the healthy green shine would return for two seconds-then it would try to turn grey again.

"Did something odd happen last night?" I ask Knuckles, but he does not respond to me. Instead, he mutters furoiusly to himself.

"Why the hell is this happening? I stayed up all night, it can't be tampered with," he begins to inspect the Emerald around all sides, looking for something out of the ordinary. "Why is this happening?"

"It is too early to be loud," I say in attempt to hush him. His head snaps around and glares at me.

"You don't even know what's going on! You-!"

"Calm down. Was it normal after you talked to me last night?"

"Yeah, it wasn't doing _that_!"

"Is the Master Emerald sensitive to anything?"

His eyes widen in realization. As I wait for him to blurt out something important, he simply mutters, "Egg..."

"Excuse me?"

"Stay here, make sure the Emerald is alright." He runs past me with the intention of not giving me a clear answer and immediately leaps off the edge of Angel Island. His body straightens like a pencil as he glides over the ocean, eventually disappearing off to the distance.

Why did he leave me to do this? I wanted to go back to Coffee District to start a mission that would involve me fighting or doing anything strenuous. If anything happens to the Master Emerald, then it is on my shoulders.

It continues to flicker, growing grayer with every color shift.

"What is that?" my ears perk up to the shuffling in the forest part of the island. It cannot be Knuckles, he just left. Getting a last glimpse of the ill Master Emerald, I sprint into the verdure. Violet mist permeates throughout the forest ground, halting me in my tracks, followed by a high-pitch squeaks. I hop up, snatch the tree branch and swing upward, and plant my feet firmly on the tough branch.

Maundering around the trees are six dark grey mushrooms with purple caps. How mushrooms can ever move is unfathomable to me. They were not here when I came here; they are worth getting a closer look at.

I skip down, plopping next to one and bend down for clear examination. Briefly, I step back as the yellow-eyed mushrooms face me, eyeballing me suspiciously. Abruptly, they strike a "macho pose", and turn into stone as they come towards me.

As they get nearer, I essay a low kick at one of them, but it proves to be completely ineffective. How did their bodies become impenetrable in a matter of seconds…what are these things? They lunge, but I nimbly jump over the circle, standing behind them. Again, I try to hit them but all that is hurt is my fist and foot.

They all squeak and contract at once, releasing a toxic-looking gas from their pores. With all these trees here, I cannot defend myself against these poisonous mushrooms. Using the branches to avoid the violet gas, I swing over them and make a run for it. Somehow, I end up in a part of the island I have not seen before. It is clear of some trees, but mainly is composed of ruins and broken statues.

"They are coming, but how am I supposed to stop them?" I ask myself with clenched fists. I _hate _running away like a coward. I am no coward-but I do not know how to save myself. I can hear them shuffling towards me with their tiny feet. They seem akin to the monsters that attacked Clancy and I, Heartless is the name?

I catch a glimpse of something silver behind me. How convenient, a sword stuck in the ground just as I am wondering what to do with myself. I place my hands on the rusty-feeling handle; I gasp.

With too much ease, I pull the rustic sword from the ground, rubbing the ridges of the silver grip. The five-inch, periwinkle edged blade glistens in the sunlight; it has a single tooth protruding out, almost similiar a key, but not a complete one. Without hesitation, I face the slowly-approaching mushrooms with the hearts on them.

Just as they started to expel the purple mist, I swipe the sword at them destroying two of them in a single slash. Feeling confident, I continue to slash at the rest of the mushrooms, not minding the purple mist seeping into my body. When they solidify, my fighting craze stops as I have to simply avoid them, and then when their armor wears off, I go in for the kill.

I bring the sword's blade on the cap of the last mushroom, which causes it to fade away into black mist. Are there glowing, pink hearts floating into the sky? What is that about?

As I drop on my bottom, my eyes look up to the clear blue sky and disappearing hearts, still holding the oddly-shaped sword. My eyes are so heavy, I think I am going to take a nap and hopefully the toxin I breathed in does not kill me.

'

I wake up, face covered with my arms and staring at the ground. I feel a shadow looming over my body, but it is not a worrisome feeling. Half-awake, I push up on my hands and knees and tilt my head up slightly. An orange sunset stretches across the island, but Knuckles' head blocks the rays from reaching me.

"I ask you to watch the Master Emerald and this is what you do?" he demands with a cross expression. "You're nowhere the Master Emerald."

I put my hand on my hood, slightly shaking myself awake. "I guess that mist made me tired."

"Someone could have taken the Master Emerald!"

"I was doing my duty," I protest groggily. "There were, uck…mushrooms and I found this sword."

It takes me a few seconds to realize my hands are empty. I stand up in a hurry, glance around me but see no trace of the periwinkle sword I wielded hours ago-just ruins.

"What're you talking about?" asks Knuckles incredulously. "Mushrooms and a sword?"

"There was a sword I picked up right here," I point at the spot, "and I defeated the poisonous mushrooms that were attacking me."

Knuckles snorts with sharp eyes. "I've been on this island all my life and I've never seen walking mushrooms or a sword anywhere on this island."

"They _were_ here."

"Yeah right. You just dozed off while the Master Emerald was suffering, and you're coming up with excuses. You don't need to be here."

"I-"

It is too late to say anything because Knuckles storms off in a huff. Before disappointedly slinking away, I take one final look around. It is as if nothing happened here.

"Sorry," I whisper to the healthier, sheer green Master Emerald at the altar. It is not flashing anymore, so maybe it had to do with that sword, or something Knuckles did? Trying to convince Knuckles is pointless, so all I can do is bury this shame deep inside and move on.

**School stopped me for a while, my bad. Write a review guys!**


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